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Be Real about Yourself for that Bookkeeping Job

Does your resume really reflect you? Remember, it's important to be specific and provide examples.
Does your resume really reflect you? Remember, it’s important to be specific and provide examples.

We’re always trying to help people who have done our online MYOB course get work, so it’s time to emphasise again the message that overselling yourself in your resume stands out a mile — for all the wrong reasons!

What to Ditch

We’ve written previous posts with tips on how to make your resume stand out. Whether it’s a bookkeeper, office admin, virtual assistant or executive-level role you’re after, we’ve selected a few commonly used phrases that you should be leaving out of your resume and what you might include to replace them. Here goes:

“Highly qualified” – instead of using this generic and largely meaningless term, describe what you will bring to the role. Highlight specific accomplishments in previous positions and any awards or certifications you’ve earned.

“Hard worker” – explain just how it is you’ve gone the extra mile. Perhaps you frequently met tough deadlines, handled a high volume of projects or tackled tasks outside your job description?

“Team player” – well, it’s a bit of a problem if you don’t work well with others, so this tends to be assumed these days. Talk about a specific objective you achieved by partnering with colleagues or individuals in other departments?

“Problem solver” – again, be specific; highlight a tricky situation you encountered and how you solved the problem exactly.

“Flexible” – adaptability is a must in most organisations. Demonstrate your flexibility by describing how you responded to a major change at work or dealt with unpredictable aspects of your role.

“People person” – here it might be an idea to provide an instance of how you won over a challenging customer or co-worker.

“Self-starter” – yes, companies need people with initiative – show how you took the initiative when you saw an issue that needed to be addressed.

Remember, It’s the Little Things

We spoke to a couple of head hunters we know about what can make your resume stand out amongst the hundreds a prospective employer might receive. They were unanimous in their view that what piqued their interest were details and specifics about such things as what changes you contributed to your last position; in other words, some aspect that they could delve into and explore a little more. Real examples and instances of where you’ve contributed to a company in a positive way could then spark a conversation in a job interview.

Specifics for Bookkeepers

If you’re looking for bookkeeping work, we suggest ensuring you demonstrate some sound information about the evolving legislation around BAS agents and information about Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for bookkeeping professionals. Keep subscribing to our blog to receive other job seeking tips and tricks in your Inbox.

 

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EOFY Tips: Keeping the Accountant Happy

bookkeeper accountant eofy tax preparation list
As a business owner, you don’t need to dread the 30 June!

30 JUNE IS VERY LIKELY a date dreaded by most bookkeepers. If you’re new to bookkeeping, we know it takes a while to remember everything that needs to be done, which is why we’ve been putting together blogs containing EOFY tips and checklists to make sure you make it to August!

And continuing in that tradition, we’ve put together one more checklist to help you out with your end of financial year analysis — some tips on keeping your clients’ accountants happy.

End of Financial Year Checklist to Keep Your Accountant Happy

Once you’ve done all of your EOFY reports, reconciliation and payroll (see our EOFY payroll checklist), you’ll need to forward on a few reports to your clients’ account.

These reports will vary from client-to-client and depend greatly on the size of the company, entity, or what services you’ve been engaged to provide, but typically every accountant will need the following:

  • Reconciliation Reports — BAS GST, payroll and accounts
  • Reports — balance sheets, P&L, general ledger accounts, accounts receivable & accounts payable at 30 June
  • Details of any motor vehicle usage
  • Accounting Information System copy of data file (backup)

For more tips to help you through your end of financial year analysis, see our EOFY checklist or our EOFY payroll checklist posts or visit the Institute of Certified Bookkeepers website.

learn online training Xero courses videos for less

Want to learn everything you need to know about Xero? Our Xero online training courses include EVERYTHING for ONE LOW PRICE. Furthermore, if you select our Lifetime Membership option, you’ll have LIFETIME access to our ongoing course updates.  EzyLearn courses are endorsed by industry professionals and can be counted towards Continuing Professional Development (CPD) points. Find out more about our Xero online training courses.

 

 

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Why I Chose EzyLearn for MYOB

EzyLearn online MYOB training course
Get certified with our EzyLearn online MYOB training course.

Hi, my name’s Michelle Stone and I’m an existing EzyLearn MYOB student. I’ve been asked to write a blog about why I chose Ezylearn for MYOB. Well, it didn’t take me much time to decide at all.

Last year, I was put in a situation at home that required me to take over my late father’s business. In taking over this business I needed to reorganise everything, including the accounting software they used. I was introduced to a chartered accountant who became a mentor and he runs his whole chartered accounting firm using MYOB. So I went into his office one day and his assistant director tried to teach me MYOB in one day. At the end of the day I was so confused!

I knew I needed to find something fast to help me with MYOB. It’s complicated software that can’t be trained / taught in one day, unless you are a genius (which I’m not!)

I went home to my trusty computer and looked up MYOB courses on Google and really looked at the different courses on offer. I had a few criteria of my own that had to be matched:

I wanted:

  • To study when I wanted to — mornings, night, and weekends, anytime suitable/available.
  • To study where I wanted to — café, work or more relaxing environment at home.
  • To study and learn at my own pace, not someone else’s pace; be it the teacher or other students.
  • To have visual examples with step-by-step instructions, then be able to practise the same thing in MYOB.
  • To have assistance when I needed it, not just when I’m learning but when I’ve completed the course as well.
  • To have a certificate or certification at the end. This made me feel good once I completed the course and I felt it would assist me in acquiring work afterwards.
  • To be able to use the course materials in real-time situations.

EzyLearn met all those criteria and more. The EzyLearn online MYOB course helped me to learn the ins and outs of running a small business from an accounting point of view. It made learning MYOB easy because all the learning material and guidance was at my fingertips with a push of a few buttons on my own computer.

So for me it’s not so much why choose Ezylearn for MYOB — it’s why not?

— Michelle Stone

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MYOB Student Creates a Website for Dad’s Business Using WordPress.

ASBC-Crest-smaller-Certified ContractorYou might recall the blog post that I put out earlier this week advertising for an Admin Assistant for our Chatswood office. We had some fantastic responses and it confirmed my thoughts about promoting work opportunities to our own network as opposed to complete strangers on a website like SEEK.

You might be interested to read about our bad SEEK experiences at the Australian Small Business Blog! There’s also some interesting information about competition and business valuation that you might find interesting if you are planning to start your own business and want to understand the concept of value.

One of the most interesting experiences in my team building exercise so far is discovering people’s attitude to work. The best example I can think of is the story about one lady who completed our MYOB course so that she could help run her father’s business. In the short time she had to get up to speed, she was able to use her skills to not only help manage the finances of the business but she was able to improvise and adapt to each new situation that arose, including building a professional website for that business using WordPress and perform many other tasks outside of her area of expertise.

[quote]This is one of the key skills you need to run your own startup business. Improvisation.[/quote]

We are working on a Certification Program for the Australian Small Business Centre to credential contractors who make themselves available to help businesses manage their business from Day-to-Day. This program is designed to build a team of competent professionals who understand the principles of providing a good and competent service for a reasonable return. We are looking for contractors who want to work with local businesses and offer a win-win service.

If you want to start your own business or want help getting your existing business off the ground make sure you complete the Business Service Provider form and begin your journey on becoming a Certified Contractor.

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The Start-Up Incubator: Pollenizer

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We’re often talking about start ups, starting a new business, what it takes to succeed, and we cover many of the practical aspects of owning and operating your own business in our Small Business Management course. We’ve also touched on prepaid legal services for bookkeepers who have completed our online MYOB training course and the latest provider to enter the prepaid legal fray: LawPath — which is also the latest venture of start-up incubator, Pollenizer.

Pollenizer: How it all Started-Up

Based in Sydney’s Surry Hills, Pollenizer, which was founded by Mick Liubinskas and Phil Morle — the former chief technology officer of infamous file sharing site, Kazaa — aims to co-found companies and grow them to a point where the founders can then exit for a profit.

Pollenizer’s most recent success story is that of group-buying site, Spreets, which was sold to Yahoo for $40 million dollars after only 12 months.

When Morle and Liubinskas spot a start-up they’re interested in, they invest up to $150,000 to help get what is often just an idea scribbled on a napkin off the ground.

Pollenizer’s Start-Up Science

How do ideas make it to some kind of fruition? This involves employing what Morle calls the Pollenizer “start-up science” where each start-up is dragged over Pollenizer’s so-called technical and marketing coals.

Discovery, Validation and Efficiency

Starting with discovery, the Pollenizer team looks into whether a particular start-up solves an existing problem and whether customers will pay for the solution. Next, is validation — testing whether real people will actually want to pay for the product. The last stage is efficiency: ensuring the business is capable of operating when more customers come on board.

But about half of the start-ups don’t make it past the second stage.

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But one of the most interesting aspects to the way Pollenizer operates occurs before you’ve even opened your doors for business, so to speak: Pollenizer’s “start-up science”.

By methodically looking at your business idea and what your business aims to do, you’ll discover any pitfalls you may encounter, giving you the chance to modify and refine your business idea.

We all like to think we have a great business idea that could change the world. But as Pollenizer shows, for half of us it’s just an idea.

That doesn’t mean give up; it means research, reassess and retry.

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LinkedIn Profiles: What Not To Do

620_300_cropIf you are like me, or pretty much any other living, breathing person on the planet with access to the Internet, then you’ve probably Googled someone in the last 24 hours.

Actually, I Googled someone while writing this post; had a gander at their LinkedIn profile and then went about the rest of my business.

I’ve mentioned previously how a LinkedIn profile works in shaping a person’s opinion of you, but how do you ensure it’s shaping a person’s opinion of you in the right way?

Getting Mileage Out of Your LinkedIn Profile

If you’re a jobseeker and you need to overhaul your LinkedIn profile, then some things to avoid:

Lying: Lie on your resume à la ex-Yahoo CEO, Scott Thomson, and you’re running the gamut of being found out at some point; lie on your LinkedIn profile and you will definitely get found out (either by a colleague or former employer), but lie on your CV and not your LinkedIn profile: now you’re not only a liar, you’re also a stupid one!

It’s simple: don’t lie. Ever.

Too many recommendations: if a prospective employer is scoping you out — perhaps to verify some of the claims in your CV or interview — and you don’t have any recommendations it’s likely they’ll consider you a dud networker, or worse: a dud employee.

To remedy this, send out a few recommendation requests. But don’t overdo it (when you’re job hunting, for example) — a slew of recommendations all at once makes it obvious you’re job hunting, which your current employer may not think too highly of.

Your job description is vague: maybe you think it’s mysterious, but vague or ambiguous statements in your job description is just plain elusive, and it makes you seem as though you’ve something to hide. Like maybe you’re not as fabulous as you let on you are.

The statement “assisted with the grand opening of a new store” could mean anything. For all we know, you could have put out the plastic cups people were drinking their complementary bubbles from. Instead, write what you actually did. No matter how small the task was.

No photo: this isn’t a beauty contest, nor is it the correct medium to post a picture of yourself drinking from a seven-foot beer bong. But the option to upload a picture is there for a reason.

A picture tells a thousand words and like it or not, visuals are important. If they weren’t, we’d never have to go for an actual job interview.

Ambiguous keywords: choose your keywords wisely; avoid overused buzzwords like “proven track record” or “team-player”. They may sound impressive (to you) but they really aren’t.

Instead of saying you have a proven track record in sales, show people what that proven track record was — if you pitched and won a multi-million dollar account for your company, say that. This turns an empty statement into a quantifiable accomplishment.

We work with professional partners that help combine our online training courses with services that help you to improve your chances of employability, or hone their talents and skills for running a small business. If you’re new to LinkedIn, we’ve discussed in a previous post how you can use your LinkedIn profile as your resume to find work. If you are looking for opportunities to become an independent contractor and operate your own business from home see the business opportunities at Workface.

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Working from Home Doesn’t Have to Mean Working Alone

Lonely office man

We are constantly refreshing the content of our MYOB training course so that you are privy to all the latest information you need for becoming a bookkeeper, running your own bookkeeping business, or doing the books for the businesses of others.

Certainly, technology has reshaped the way most of us work, learn and interact with each other. Whether working from home or from an office, many of us spend the bulk of our time online, and for many, it’s not uncommon to feel increasingly disconnected from others, lonely, even. However, in this ever-increasing virtual world in which we live and work, there are ways to combat loneliness — things we’ve probably learned from our mother’s and grandmother’s: to mind our P’s and Q’s.

Everybody Emails

If you are thinking about working from home and running a bookkeeping business in 2013 (or you already do this), it goes without saying that things are substantially different to the way they were 20 years ago; different, even to just 10 years ago. Instead of seeing your clients often and chatting regularly on the phone, you email. On a daily basis, your Inbox fills with emails from clients — emails you rarely read in full, scanning instead for keywords or instructions that you mentally note down for later; the email is then closed. Rarely a response longer than “No problem”, “Done” or “Sure, will do” is sent back (something I’m guilty of myself!).

However, there was a time when a client would have phoned through their request or query, you’d have chatted, built a relationship, and some of the loneliness of working from home would have been assuaged. Today, we rarely indulge in such pleasantries — and we complain we’re lonely.

Building Relationships

But loneliness is so easily rectified, particularly in business. Instead of emailing a one-word email back, engage with your customers. Get to know them; ask them how they are, how business is travelling and, above all, thank them for continuing to do business with you. People like to feel appreciated; they like to feel that they’re not alone in the world.

At EzyLearn, we’re in the business of helping people build profitable businesses working from home. With all of our online training courses, we strive to ensure our online students don’t feel detached or lonely. We know that studying online can sometimes feel like you’re missing out on the student-teacher, student-student interaction, making your road to graduation a long and lonely one. It’s why we implemented the ZenDesk customer support system — to handle and respond to your queries quickly and efficiently — and why we’re also active on social media so you can connect with us quickly and easily, every time.

Next time you feel lonely when working or studying online or from home, perhaps consider whether technology has effectively placed a barricade between you and those around you. Are you likely to be regarded as a real person by your clients, or more a faceless, voiceless email that happens to bear your name? Use technology, instead, to connect (or reconnect) with people — and what better place to start than by saying, “Thank You”!

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Does Online Study Translate into Better Employment Prospects?

Are you more likely to get that job if you study online?
Are you more likely to get that job if you study online?

In a recent post I discussed the differences between studying at TAFE, university or a private institution, the various methods of delivery and why you might choose one over the other. But does one particular method of delivery translate into better employment prospects?

Online Study: For Self Starters?

Online study (or correspondence or distance learning, as it was once known) has long divided people into two camps: those who see online or distance students as being self-motivated and dedicated, and those traditionalists or purists who see face-to-face learning as being, in some way, superior.

Truthfully, both sides are probably right. Face-to-face learning does force interaction between students — a precursor to real-life interaction and networking in business.

Business Means Dealing with People

We have often said that one of the fundamental requirements when starting a business is being able to plan. Another, however, is being able to interact and communicate with people from many walks-of-life. And from time-to-time, this means respecting the ideas and opinions of your colleagues whether you agree or not.

Managing or running a business often has less to do with balance sheets and more to do with managing people, or rather, managing different personalities. To a large extent, these are skills you learn in the playground; the university campus.

But they’re also frequently skills a person either inherently has or hasn’t. University doesn’t teach these skills as much as it brings them out in people already possessing them.

Take Mark Zuckerberg — an ambitious Internet visionary — but someone ill-equipped to deal with people and personalities (it’s Sheryl Sandberg who does that), even though he studied face-to-face at university, where Facebook was born. It’s true that face-to-face learning can sometimes conceal a great deal of unmotivated people — people that require constant direction, attention and supervision.

Online Study: If YOU Like Being in Charge

Online study doesn’t allow you to be unmotivated and in constant need of direction; it’s wholly autonomous and requires students to have a great deal of self-motivation, drive and ambition. These are traits that, for a person completing a course in bookkeeping with the intention to work as a sole-trader, will go a long way in determining your success a business owner.

Online students also show a great deal of technological savvy — the ability to work with new systems without a person at the ready to prompt you or answer your questions is an invaluable trait for business owners that often only have themselves to rely on for guidance.

In many ways, online students are problem-solvers; where it’s human nature to put our hand up for help, online students are forced to really look at the problem-at-hand logically, and thoroughly exhaust their options before sending off an email or picking up the phone.

But like universities don’t teach social interaction — they merely foster it — online study doesn’t teach autonomy. I would say that online students are attracted to online study because they already possess those traits likely to make them successful in business.

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When you enrol in one of our MYOB training courses, you should be happy to know that you’re among a group of self-motivated, ambitious individuals with the drive and determination to succeed.

Together with EzyLearn, you’re on track to become the next small-business entrepreneur.

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How to Get Paid on Time by Doing Absolutely Nothing

Doing nothing in office
Keep on top of invoices without lifting a finger!

In the past, we have talked about debtor management, the ways you can avoid late-payers by keeping an eye on your cash and assets cycle, and now we thought it was time we talked about the ways you can keep on top of those outstanding invoices without even lifting a finger!

Why Getting Paid on Time Matters

Dealing with late-payers is frustrating, time-consuming, and at times, downright awkward. For freelancers, sole-traders and small businesses, getting paid on time is essential to keeping your cash flow under control.

If you’re not in the position to turn down those perpetual late-payers’ business, then you need to put strategies into place to best manage those late-payers.

Gentle Email Reminders for Getting Paid on Time

Sending a polite, yet firm reminder email to clients a few days before their invoice becomes due is a good way to remind people an invoice is due to be paid, particularly if you have terms of 21 days or more. Often you’ll find most people will pay you once they’re given a gentle nudge via an email reminder.

Of course, there are always those who’ll still try and stretch it out as long as possible — it’s likely their cash flow isn’t much chop; in a sense, by paying you late they’re robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Most of the time, these clients are hoping you haven’t noticed. By sending them a follow up email reminder a couple of days after your invoice was due will show them you have noticed, you haven’t forgotten, and they’ll likely concede defeat and pay — if they still don’t respond, it may be time to implement some of the strategies we discussed here.

More Stringent Payment Terms

But if you find emailing you clients each time their invoices come due and then again when they’re late is not only time-consuming, but also awkward, try setting up the parameters in your invoicing software so that automatic reminder emails are sent out before and after your invoices come due.

Most cloud-based accounting programs, like Freshbooks, Zoho, Shoebooks, Saasu and Salestastic now offer this automatic reminder facility, freeing you up to concentrate on the other areas of your business.

For businesses that have a dedicated accounts receivable department, the ability to send automatic reminders could, depending on the size of your business, save hours, even days of manpower. Plus, it eliminates any awkwardness you may feel chasing someone for a $50 invoice — sure, that one $50 isn’t much, but over time they do add up.

So get paid on time without even lifting a finger by using the automated reminders in your accounting software.

Remember: If you have already completed one of our MYOB training courses and need a bit of a refresher on the Accounts Receivable module, which deals with the ways to get paid on time, you can review it again for FREE if you are within your 12 month enrolment access period OR if you selected our additional option of Lifetime Access.

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4 Common Resume Mistakes to AVOID

Screen shot 2013-03-21 at 3.00.16 PMThe average employer or HR department spends approximately 35 seconds on each resume or CV before deciding to toss it in the “NO” pile or read on. Some employers are not even doing this, opting for technology to search your CV for them.

Resume Mistake #1: No Goal

The most important part of your CV or resume is your goal or objective. People often dwell on spelling and punctuation errors being the most important thing, and while it’s an important consideration, if you’re really serious about a position, then checking for these should be instinctive.

Most people leave writing their objective until the rest of their CV or resume is done. Then they often write a one-size-fits-all, generic summary of the kind of position they’re looking for that’s then regurgitated for each job they apply for. Big mistake! This is the only part of your CV that tells a prospective employer what you’re looking for — use this space wisely.

Resume Mistake #2: Leaving the Reader To Guess What You’ve Done

Don’t wax lyrical about “challenging work environments” and “putting your creativity to good use” — these aren’t quantifiable objectives; save them for your interview.

For example, if you’re applying for a position as a computer engineer, tell them why you want that position and why you’re suited to it, referring to your previous work history. This will get the reader far more interested in your CV.

Also people are often too ambiguous with the actual wording they use. Don’t use vague statements like “assisted with” or “handled” — these leave the reader wondering what you actually did.

Your CV should tell employers exactly what your role was — if you wrote and distributed press releases to national media outlets, tell employers that.

But don’t fall into the “my responsibilities involved” or “my duties included” trap — these outline your job description, not how capable you were at your job.

The sentence:

My duties included writing and distributing press releases to national media outlets to publicise the national launch of Revlon’s midnight red lipstick.

would have more impact if it was written as:

To publicise the national launch of Midnight Red lipstick, I wrote and distributed press releases to various media outlets, resulting in national coverage in The Weekend Australian and the Nine National News.

Here, people can see that you’re actually (very) competent at your job.

Resume Mistake #3: Not Using Bullet Points

If you’ve worked somewhere for several years, chances are you did a lot more than write one press release.

This is where writing a three-sentence description for each of your accomplishments becomes impractical —  and if you do, your resume is more likely to resemble War and Peace than a CV — a massive turn-off for recruiters.

Bullet points are not only easier to read, they’re also space savers, great for breaking up dense blocks of text.

  • Wrote and distributed press releases, resulting in national coverage for Midnight Red Lipstick in The Weekend Australian, Nine National News.

Resume Mistake #4: Getting the Length All Wrong

Then there’s the subject of much conjecture: resume length. Some people believe a resume shouldn’t be longer than one page. And in adhering to this rule, there are many resumes out here with an overwhelming amount of 9-point text crammed into one page.

As a general rule of thumb, if you have to choose between crammed-in text and another resume page, go with the latter.

White space is your friend! Use it liberally. There’s nothing more daunting than having to sit and read a page-full of dense text that leaves no safe place to rest the eye.

See more resume writing tips here, or perhaps you need to brush up your Microsoft Word skills for resume writing? Or if you need broader assistance generally with writing a CV or resume, see the services offered by our professional partners for resume writing services.

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Would you rather work from home? We help many students operate their own home based business by giving them the software skills to do it. Here are some home based business opportunities from our professional partners.

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The Cash and Assets Cycle: Monitor the Perpetual Late Payers

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There’s a regular cycle your business goes through every week, month or quarter. It’s a cycle that maybe you pay little attention to—it’s so simple, so entrenched in your business operations you hardly even consider it—but it’s time you took a closer look at what is called: the Cash Conversion Cycle.

What is the Cash and Assets Cycle?

As the name suggests, the “cash and assets cycle” starts with cash in the bank. This 5-step cycle then progresses through to purchasing stock; selling and invoicing that stock; offering payment terms (say 14 days, 30 days or cash-on-delivery) and finally, receiving payment. And so it goes, rinse and repeat.

Monitoring this cycle is vitally important to the success of your business—and your livelihood. But perhaps you’re wondering why.

Isolating the Late Payers

We’ve previously talked about why you need to keep on top of your bookwork so you can isolate any potential late-payers—called debtor management.

By keeping the cash and assets cycle in mind, it’s possible to see the real implication late-payers can have on your business.

With invoices left outstanding, you can’t start the cycle again—that is, purchasing more stock—and without stock, you’re left with nothing to sell and (obviously) no money coming in. You have literally reached a standstill and all because you didn’t monitor where you were in the cash and assets cycle.

Keep an eye on your cash and assets cycle and you’ll come to notice those perpetual late-payers, enabling you to put processes in place to better manage these customers.

These processes could involve things like requiring payment upfront, adding administrative charges, or when everything else has failed, debt collection.

But monitoring your cash and assets cycle, regardless of how easy it is to forget about, is essential to ensuring your cash and assets keep cycling. The setting up of professional invoices and payment terms are just some of the areas covered in our MYOB online training course.

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Prepaid Legal Services: The Long and the Short of It

ID-100129847Many of the bookkeeping business owners who have completed our online MYOB training course may or may not be familiar with the Privacy Act reforms due to be enforced next year. Many businesses that collect their customers’ personal information will need to review their privacy policies and practices to ensure they’re not in breach of the Act.

But reading through and interpreting statutes can be tricky; ensuring you’re in compliance with them, even more so.

For large organisations, this is usually the responsibility of their in-house legal team or the firm they have on retainer; for small organisations, there often isn’t an in-house legal team never mind a firm on retainer.

Gaining traction in the Australian marketplace, however, is the trend of prepaying for your legal service—a trend, mind you, that’s been in existence in the US for over forty years.

Perth-based Prepaid Legal, which has been operating in Australia since 1998, provides prepaid legal services to individuals and an array of different business types, while relative newcomer, LawPath, is only available to businesses.

Prepaid legal services are a lot like private health insurance; you select, from a range of plans, one that suits you; pay a monthly premium (on average between $24 and $36 per month); and, according to the terms set out in the legal plan, you have access to one of the service’s “preferred lawyers”.

Prepaid legal services give small businesses and individuals who otherwise wouldn’t be able to afford it, access to legal advice for the cost of the low monthly premium.

But a prepaid legal plan doesn’t guarantee access to the same lawyer, or in some cases, even the same law firm. Instead, you’re assigned a lawyer based on their availability and the requirements of your matter.

For some businesses whose legal requirements only involve quick consultations or reviewing and preparing simple legal documents, a prepaid legal service like this could work.

Of course prepaid legal services are really only useful if you use them. As a business owner you should consider how often you would enlist the service of a lawyer throughout the course of your business day-to-day and look at what value a prepaid legal service would bring to your business.

If you are used to receiving information about our MYOB Courses you might also know that we have introduced a Small Business Course to our online training courses and in it we have a section about the legal structures a business can take.

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Monthly Bookkeeping and Debtor Management

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We have previously talked about how to account for bad debt, but what about the ways you can manage your debtors to avoid things turning bad, so to speak, in the first place?

Much of your debtor management comes into play when you or your bookkeeper is doing your books.

It might be a good idea to find a bookkeeper who can chase up your accounts receivable every week rather than stress about it all month!

Continue reading Monthly Bookkeeping and Debtor Management
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Teleworking – How Does It Affect Your Work-Life Balance?

ID-10090542We are constantly refreshing the content of our MYOB training course so that you can benefit from all the new information that is always coming in about being a bookkeeper, running your own bookkeeping business — or doing the books for someone else’s business.

We have previously discussed the benefits of teleworking to both the employer and the employee, and while the benefits  of, for instance, reducing the home-office commute and increasing workforce participation, are hard to ignore, there are some downsides that could adversely affect your work-life balance.

High-speed internet, smart phones, tablet devices and cloud accounting software like MYOB Account Right Live may make it so much easier to connect with work from the comfort of your own home, but it’s also making it increasingly difficult to switch off.

Study Proves We Work More from Home

A study conducted by Dr Carolyn Axtell, a senior lecturer at the University of Sheffield in the UK, found that many workers often worked an additional 15-20 hours per week merely because they could remotely access their work from home.

In addition to the self-reported “voluntary” additional work hours, in a separate study carried out by the University of Toronto, workers also reported that it was often expected of them to check emails, take calls and log into work outside of office hours, including when on holidays.

But the additional work hours and interruption to workers’ recreation time, according to Dr Axtell, can significantly impact a person’s health as well as their relationships with friends and family.

Poorer quality of sleep and psychological stress brought on by an increase in phone calls, emails and texts out of work hours were among workers’ main complaints, while Dr Axtell also found many employees felt they became less productive working from home.

Productivity levels, according to Dr Axtell, tend to level off among employees that are working long hours and, over time, even drop when tiredness and stress impairs performance.

You need to take time out

Quiet timeTo combat stress and losses in productivity, managers and employees alike, need to implement protocols to enable teleworkers to switch off.

Working to time—rather than task, taking regular breaks, sticking to a work routine and maintaining usual sleep and work patterns are among the top tips teleworkers can adopt to avoid overwork. By switching off gadgets at the end of the day and notifying colleagues, managers and clients of when you are and are not available will ensure you’re not stressing about returning an email during your holiday!

Want to work hard, start a business

I’ve written several blog posts about starting a business and in particular starting a bookkeeping business (because a large number of our students enrol into our MYOB Training Courses) and the fact that we are so well connected to the Internet and each other almost makes us work as though we own the business.

If you are looking to start your own business or want to learn the skills required to manage a small business remember that we have just launched our Cert IV in Small Business Management. Enrol today and enjoy a massive discount for a limited time only.

 

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Teleworking – how does it benefit you?

Teleworking, home based business work from home

Teleworking from home

While Australians have had the ability to telework by using laptops, tablet devices, and smartphones, to connect to work for sometime, it’s unusual for employees to do this on a regular basis or even to be employed solely on this basis.

However, research both locally and internationally has shown the great benefits that teleworking can offer employers and employees, and in fact, the country as a whole.

For employers, teleworking assists with the recruitment and retention of staff, particularly young employees and those transitioning to retirement, but it also reduces staff turnover and absenteeism usually triggered by changes to family circumstances.

Teleworking saves money

In other, more tangible senses, teleworking reduces the costs associated with office space, such as energy costs and infrastructure, now that employees can remotely access files and documents using cloud accounting and storage software like DropBox.

But the real benefits for employers are derived from the benefits experienced by their employees.

Being able to work from home has been shown to greatly increase an employee’s work/life balance, which in turn drives job satisfaction and on-the-job productivity.

And by reducing commute times and the mental stress associated with juggling work and family commitments, employees have more time to up-skill by enrolling in distance education or online courses (like one of our MYOB courses), which will be even better with the NBN, which increases the number of highly skilled workers in the labour force.

Teleworking levels the playing field

While employers have access to a larger labour pool and employees likewise have access to a larger pool of employers now that geographical restrictions have been removed, teleworking also increases the instances of people starting a home-based business.

It is these benefits from teleworking, such as the increase in labour participation, the uptake of further education, and the growth in new home-based businesses that is not just great news for Australian employers and employees, but also for the Australian economy.

The scary news about teleworking

The major risk to Australian workers is that the increased pool of workers also includes workers in developing countries like the Philippines and India who are often very well trained and willing to work very hard for much lower pay. Even if we look at the USA we find remote workers who are willing to perform most small business operational tasks for $15 per hour.

There may be a benefit in living in the Australian time zone, speaking good English and writing well, but when it comes to many fields of work like graphic design it has really become a global market place for workers.